


a ray of light spilling out of a cloud

by svntn



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, First Crush, Fluff, Minor Jeon Wonwoo/Xu Ming Hao | The8, Minor Wen Jun Hui | Jun/Yoon Jeonghan, Slow Burn, cliche american themes and activities, me also trying to remember early 2000s high school things but make it LA is also a fun theme, potentially and if not then i'll delete the tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:07:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28653246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/svntn/pseuds/svntn
Summary: At first, Joshua just wanted to be the best host student available to Soonyoung. He wanted his friends and Soonyoung to be good friends so that Soonyoung wasn't lonely in the obnoxiously huge crowd of students.That was until Joshua became eager to embrace the things Soonyoung loved doing back home, visiting cafes after school to study, play sports, hang out with friends, etc. But remixing it into how American’s do the specific activities.All the while hoping by creating new memories through the old ones would help carve Joshua into Soonyoung’s heart.
Relationships: Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15
Collections: Seventeen Rare Pair Fest: 2 Rare 2 Pair





	a ray of light spilling out of a cloud

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [SVTRarePairFest2](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SVTRarePairFest2) collection. 



> **Prompt:**  
>  High School AU! Foreign exchange student Soonyoung ends up staying with Joshua's family for a semester. Cute first love stuff ensues.
> 
> Hello! So before you get too deep into this fic I just wanted to say that writing this was a gratuitous journey through writer's block and yet, some pleasant things came out of this fic. With that said, I do hope you enjoy this! It has its abrupt start and stops but I promise the following chapters will make for it! It's going to be a potentially [mark lee voice] long ass ride to the end.

Joshua thought that being chosen to be a host family to one of the school’s exchange students was the greatest win to changing the mundane high school. Even LA high schools had some lulls to it and thankfully he had constant lulls. Call him boring if you must but Joshua Hong was far from it. Sometimes. 

Anyway, after a long summer of dealing with his friend group’s antics, Jeonghan and Junhui announcing they started dating, Wonwoo winning the bet between them that the pair were definitely dating while Joshua said ‘that seems a little farfetched, don't you think?’. Followed with family road trips across the northwest part of the USA, Wonwoo constantly face timing him out of boredom and lack of attention. Sometimes Joshua wondered why his best friend was Wonwoo and not Junhui the Quiet. ( He wouldn’t give up Wonwoo for anything though. )

So when the first week of Junior year of high school came rolling in and Joshua sporting the most tan he has been in four years of being a shut-in during summers past, he hadn’t expected the school-wide assembly to garner his first spotlight through his high school career. 

Imagine this: They were minding their own business, Wonwoo playing Pokemon on his DS Lite, Joshua watching beside him, Jeonghan and Junhui thumb wrestling because that’s the only civil way they could hold hands in public. Half-way through the announcements about how great the new year will be, there is a roll of applause from Joshua’s class and the burning sensation of eyes on him from all corners. So you can imagine when he looks up from Wonwoo’s DS and sees he’s the centre of this, he wanted to wish his existence gone.

“I hope you’ll treat our 11th-grade exchange student splendidly, mister Hong.” Their principal follows through, a kind nod of her head before proceeding to list the Senior year host family kid. 

Oh, dear.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god-“

“Shua, my dude, it’s not the end of the world.” Jeonghan comments, slapping a hand onto the frantic other’s shoulder, “In fact, it’s pretty cool that you get to host the new kid.” 

“That’s not what my problem is.” He wasn’t lying either. Under the layer of unknown anxiety and hunched shoulders, as he holds his head between his hands, he was just  _ confused _ .

“Okay so?”

“My parents knew and they didn’t tell me!” He lays his head onto the cafeteria table’s surface, a very long groan coming from the boy. The second eldest, Jeonghan rolls his eyes in the process. He should have known better. 

Once it became unbearable that the other wasn’t going to stop, the three others changed their presence, opting to ignore Joshua until he’s finished with his little meltdown. It took them chewing through at least the veggies and main dish of their lunch for Joshua to at least stop making noise.

“Anyway, where do you think the kid is coming from?” Wonwoo questions, cracking open the lid to his juice. At the sound, Joshua raised his head up with big eyes as he peered at the bottle of gold. As if knowing that’d be the reaction he’d gain, Wonwoo placed the bottle into Joshua’s awaiting hands. His best friend knew the magic words are: Apple Juice.

“Maybe we’ll get someone from Australia.” Jeonghan hums, “Or Canada?”

“Why would a Canadian come to sunny California? Wouldn’t they like, melt from the amount of sun?” Wonwoo retorts.

“They aren’t witches.” Joshua supplies to the already nonsense conversation they were having. Nothing out of the ordinary. This counts Junhui giving no feedback despite probably having comments of his own in his head floating around. They’ll make their way out of his mouth at some point in the day, and they’ll be slow to remember.

“I didn’t say they were.”

“You kinda did.” Jeonghan quickly brings his hands up, a signal to end the topic on his terms, “Anyway, I just hope he isn’t lame.” The group makes noises of agreement. For the sake of Joshua’s sanity and because they’ll most likely be spending time together regardless. They wouldn’t exile the poor soul if anything Junhui would be their wild card for tolerance. 

It had been about a month since the first day of a school assembly and the Hong household being in a casual frenzy to get their home ready for the kid they would be hosting for the next so and so months. And then the morning of D-Day approached. 

Joshua was given the ‘OK’ to miss the first half of school, out of the courtesy of him and oddly enough the school principal to go to LAX and escort the student to school. They were currently in one of the school’s vans, Joshua in the backseat with Soonyoung, he thinks that’s his name anyway. It had been too quick of exchange and honestly, Soonyoung wasn’t keen on conversation either.

“Did you have a good flight, Soonyoung?” Mrs Lee asked toward the back occupants. Joshua perks up in hopes this means they’ll finally get to actually talk. He really wished this wasn’t a school function because at least he could have swiped Wonwoo’s DS to entertain him ( and he was raised to not do dumb shit like game when there are visitors. )

“I slept through most of it.” Soonyoung smiles small, a nervous tinge to it. Slight pauses between every other word, in the most endearing way. 

“Atta boy. Long flights are never fun.” Mrs Lee supplies, a small fist-raising in the same way Joshua’s cousins in South Korea did when they cheered him on. ‘Fighting!’

“Yeah.”

“I’ve been to Korea before and I can agree.” Joshua piques up, “My father would always sleep and my mother made me stay awake with her the whole time.” He shared a bright smile. Maybe he was trying too hard to be friendly? Yikes.

“You have?” Soonyoung’s demeanour perks up at this, much to the two other occupants' pleasure. Progress is progress.

“Mhm! My parents are originally from there. I’m the first American generation, I guess.”

Across from him, Soonyoung’s lips form an ‘o’ a silent sign of amazement from Joshua’s small story. A flurry of new interests came flying from Soonyoung’s mouth the duration of their ride back to the neighbourhood after that. Soonyoung asked where Joshua has gone when he went to S.K, what some of his favourite things to do in general are if he’s had a favourite Korean food if there are places for him to still get said goods, etc etc. The other’s broken English causes bouts of laughter ever so often and mini-lessons out of Joshua’s minimal attempts to help any confusion in the language. He found it endearing how much Soonyoung tried to keep a conversation in one-go. Even if a little bit frustrating since Konglish is a thing but Joshua’s takes pride in his dumpster fire level of Korean comprehension. Does he regret not talking to his parents more in Korean? Definitely so now.

School was finally over, after a chaotic meeting with school faculty and his parents, an elongated school tour to avoid Civics and then an unbearably silent car ride to his house, Joshua was ready to bury himself into the comforts of his bed.

Not the case when he rolled out his father’s Hyundai and saw Jeonghan standing on the porch to his house. An unbelievably coy smile on the long-haired male’s face. Which meant nothing good and only that the other had planned of the potential destruction of someone's mental health. God, please. Not today.

“Oh? Jeonghan? What are you doing here?” Mr Hong comments as he helps Soonyoung unload his suitcase. Soonyoung’s head snapping up to see who he was talking to then his eyes went to an equally confused Joshua.

“We have a group project and I wanted to get a head start with Shua.” Jeonghan lies through his smile, hand reaching back to slap his backpack that was still secured to his back. Joshua couldn’t believe this was happening before him. This little pain just wants to haze the new kid- ‘haze’ meaning question him into the next year.

“Is this true?” 

“Oh yeah. I missed English class this morning so we have a lot to catch up on.” Joshua shoulders the lie and Soonyoung’s spare duffel before making long strides toward the house. He grabs Jeonghan’s bicep firmly and quickly pulls the other away.

“I’ll get him settled then come to help Soonyoung, okay?” He calls behind him. His father gives a thumbs up then turns to Soonyoung, probably to give a quick rundown of the neighbourhood and house rules before actually crossing the threshold. 

This is going to be a long afternoon.

It took Joshua a solid twenty minutes to persuade Jeonghan to stop his plan of sneaking out of his room. They had a lie to uphold and they’re under his roof, so the lie had to be solid. And with that, he shut the door to his room behind him with a promise from his friend that he wouldn’t move from his spot or so help him Joshua will shave his head in his sleep during the next sleepover. His words, not Joshua’s.

Walking across the hallway and down a door, Joshua gently knocks on the somewhat open door of Soonyoung’s room before poking his head in. The male is unpacking his suitcase, earbuds plugged into his ears but whatever he was listening to was not loud enough because almost immediately, Soonyoung looked in his direction.

“Are you settling well?” Joshua greets, crossing into the room but not much incase he is invading. Soonyoung nods quickly, taking an earbud out from one ear.

“Need any help?” He asks next, not quite sure what he’s supposed to be doing. Having guests that weren’t family or friends is greatly beyond Joshua’s reach.

Soonyoung hums, “I’m okay. Thank you.” He says slowly but a grin shows after. A sign, if Joshua were to take it, that he was being nice to decline help out of habit, out of burden.

“You sure? Dinner isn’t ready for a while and Jeonghan is capable of dicking off by himself.”

“Dicking off?”

“Uh- Uh.” He racks his mind to figure out a basic term, coming up a little short he just sides with, “Entertaining himself.”

“Don’t you have a project?”

“Nah, he made it up.”

“Oh.” 

“Jeonghan is an impulsive liar, so don’t ever take anything he ever says seriously.” Joshua supplies as he walks in further, taking a stack of clothes out of the suitcase and handing them over to Soonyoung. The other takes them with no comment or objection and places them into respective drawers in the small dresser. They do this in a comforting silence as Joshua squishes his way into Soonyoung’s little bubble. Before they knew it, everything was settled and the pair ended up on the floor, sitting tiredly against the side of Soonyound’s bed. 

“Are you scared?” Joshua abruptly asks, cutting through the silence, “Being in a new place and all?” It takes a few moments, maybe he hadn’t spoken clearly enough, but the other laughs a bit.

“Not scared.” Soonyoung says casually, “Just waiting for the right time to shine.” Could say that Joshua was surprised by what the other said, confused at the same time because what did that even mean? But the way Soonyoung’s lips turned into the brightest smile that reached all the way to his eyes that formed little crests, he knew that Soonyoung was definitely waiting to shine, he just needed the right moment to show everyone who he is.

Whenever that is.

And whenever Joshua decides, he is going to be there to help Soonyoung find it.

  
  


The first month was something, in the eyes of Joshua Hong. 

Turns out that Jeonghan hadn’t been lying about the group project they were supposed to do, Soonyoung was painstakingly coming out of his shell, school was trash as usual but he was holding out, and as a group, they didn’t keep up to well to their promises to hold sleepovers like they had been doing for all of their childhoods or whatever their time frame is called.

And Friday nights are dedicated to The Boys, a tradition was not yet broken and Joshua prays that it never does. Ever since they had entered middle school, Joshua, Wonwoo, Jeonghan, and Junhui always made it an ‘event’ to go to one another’s home to watch movies, anime or game until the peak of Saturday morning when their mothers would come to get them or they were kindly kicked out and forced to bike on minimal sleep and adrenaline from lack thereof. 

It was a fun time.

A time that Joshua thought would be a good day to invite Soonyoung along with him to Jeonghan’s house that Friday night as their first night of the school year. Why it took so long was beyond him, nonetheless thankful because his gaming withdrawals were getting annoying. Granted he didn’t want to do this too early in befriending Soonyoung because god forbid Junhui or Jeonghan or both of them say something traumatizing enough that Soonyoung books a trip back to South Korea. 

So imagine this: Jeonghan answers the door as he usually does. His charming smile on display with his body halfway in and out, the usual because he’s self-conscious about how the inside of the Yoon household is seen. Despite the huge ass window that’s almost never covered by curtains. Privacy? The Yoon’s aren’t afraid of attention. Then yelling followed from behind him, and not just usual screaming. 

Unfortunately, the first thing Soonyoung and Joshua hear is “Jerry loves me more than you!” Wonwoo’s voice shouting from beyond the door, a tone only appropriate since Joshua knows who ‘Jerry’ is. However, the look of confusion on Soonyoung’s face says something else earning a bubble of giggles from Joshua.

“I thought Han is dating Junhui?” Soonyoung leans into his space, whispering low enough only for him to hear.

“Jerry is a cat,” Joshua says after his fit.

“Wonwoo put Jerry down!” Jeonghan shouts back, quickly departing from the door to leave them behind in his wake. Angry stomping that brings a laugh out of Joshua before he guides Soonyoung into the house. The timidness of Soonyoung’s movements definitely mirrors his uncertainty over Shua’s really strong personality of a friend and what awaits him once he enters the house. After all it is unknown territory and he understands why anyone would be scared. 

With their shoes toed off and individual bags ditched nicely off to the side, Joshua takes Soonyoung’s hand and guides him to where Junhui is contently sitting, away from the little wrestling match currently going on. All casually too.

“Welcome to your first Boys night, Soon.” Junhui greets, a crooked but genuine smile on his face. Soonyoung returns the smile, small and returns a ‘thank you.’

“What are we watching tonight?” Soonyoung asks, eyes looking around the living space. Taking in every little bobble hanging about, framed pictures on the walls, little notes of Korean culture here and there that brought him some sort of familiarity. After having wrestled his cat free of Wonwoo, Jeonghan then plops himself down beside Soonyoung. 

"You ever seen Spirited Away?" Han inquires while he rests his head on Soonyoung's shoulder. The action being allowed by Soonyoung. Something that warms Joshua's heart, the implications that his friend's were slowly making progress. He couldn't wait for the day that they witnessed Soonyoung in his full confidence.

"No?"

"Ooooh, this will be fun then." Soonyoung visibly tensed up at the underlying meaning behind Jeonghan's statement. If he were to guess, his brain is calculating the meaning behind the two words. Spirited = Ghosts, probably, and Away = someone goes poof, probably.

"Don't scare him." Joshua interrupts, pinching Han's thigh in the process, "It's just a wholesome anime movie." He supplies quickly, an attempt to save the progress they had just made so Soonyoung doesn't feel uncomfortable. Thankfully, the newbie was minimally affected.

"Minghao says it's good. And he hates anime." Wonwoo announces, causing the three of them on the sofa to be confused while Junhui bursts into laughter. Without much of a question, Junhui answers that Wonwoo is chatting with a friend from his [ Junhui's ] homeland. According to him, they've been hitting it off a little too well. It's cute, Joshua concludes. Wonwoo deserves something nice like that.

Leaping up from his place and grabbing the DVD box, Jeonghan smiles brightly, "Are we ready?"

Wonwoo puts his phone down almost immediately, Junhui stretches out on the loveseat but not enough that Jeonghan couldn't slide in with him, and Joshua distributes the few blankets the Yoon owns ( and one of his own ) to the others before settling back with Soonyoung. Who is snuggled up in the fluffy goodness that is Joshua's own blanket, pulled all the up to his nose and wrapped up comfortably.

His heart twists a little at the sight. Probably from some other world, motherly-like reaction to Soonyoung being comfortable. It is Joshua's only and main goal. He grins to himself as folds his legs up to his chest, hugging them in the process as the tv screen shows brightly.

This, Soonyoung being around, was going to be a nice addition to The Boys, he thought.

( And then before Chihiro could whine about receiving flowers, Soonyoung draped half of the blanket over Joshua's shoulders, snuggling close to him in the process. )


End file.
